Mexico’s Stone Soup

Sarah Borealis traveled to Mexico on a research trip with Tulane University, and while there, discovered a tasty tradition brewing in El Tule. Below, she describes the ancient tradition of making stone soup.

In the summer of 2008, I traveled to the town of El Tule, in the state of Oaxaca, to visit a private archive of early 20th century documents. A friend of mine who is a Mezcalero (a maker of Mezcal, an alcoholic beverage produced from the agave plant that grows abundantly in the region) was good enough to drive me to my appointment. On the way back, we received a call from a friend who was dining on “stone soup” nearby. Because we were traveling along the highway en route to Oaxaca City, we decided to stop and check it out.

It ended up being the highlight of an incredibly magical day trip. The soup reminded me of the “stone soup” fable from my childhood- the idea of making soup from stones appears in several cultures, and has a way of uniting people through both memory and active sensory experience.